Australian libraries receive unlimited access to global library catalogue

National Library of Australia Gateways, August, 2007 by Debbie Campbell

WorldCat Libraries Australia

An Historic Access Agreement is Signed

On 10 May, the Director-General of the National Library of Australia (NLA), Jan Fullerton, and the President of the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), Jay Jordan, signed an historic collaborative services agreement opening up access to two significant catalogues--Libraries Australia and WorldCat.

The agreement is a first for the Australian library community and has been ten years in the making. It ensures that new and modified bibliographic records in the two services will be automatically exchanged on a regular basis, resulting in improved cataloguing workflows for Australian libraries.

As a consequence of the agreement, holdings in Australian library collections will be discoverable internationally through OCLC's Open WorldCat program. It seeks to expose as much detail as possible to search engines such as Google and Yahoo!, complementing similar NLA strategies which allow library patrons to find the collections of their local libraries.

Accessing WorldCat from Libraries Australia

From July 2007, for the first time ever, subscribers to Libraries Australia services have unlimited access to WorldCat, which includes records available in the catalogues of libraries in 110 countries.

Australian libraries can search and obtain copy catalogue records from WorldCat using the Libraries Australia Search service or the Libraries Australia Z39.50 Gateway. Later this year, it will be possible to access Worldcat (and other catalogues) using the Libraries Australia Cataloguing Client. Libraries that already use WorldCat for searching and cataloguing may continue to use their current access mechanism.

It is expected that the RLG Union Catalog data will be added to WorldCat by August 2007, and this data will be accessible through the new arrangement.

Proposed New Governance Arrangements

Through the new agreement, Australian libraries that contribute current holdings to the Australian National Bibliographic Database (ANBD) and WorldCat will become governing members of OCLC.

On 17 April, OCLC announced that its Board of Trustees has appointed a special Governance Study Committee to conduct a study of OCLC's governance structure. As input to this study, and with the addition of so many Australian libraries to WorldCat, the NLA has commenced informal discussion with OCLC about better representation for Australian libraries in its governance structure.

For More Information

Please contact the Libraries Australia Help Desk on 1800 026 155 or by email at librariesaustralia@nla.gov.au. We welcome new questions for the FAQ at any time.

Libraries Australia: http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au WorldCat: http://worldcat.org

Frequently asked questions about the OCLC agreement: http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/questions.html#oclc

Debbie Campbell

Director, Collaborative Services Branch